Overview

"Anne Porter Lynes Field (later Lloyd, 1874-1947) was a poet and writer best known as the author of the 1915 book The Story of Canada Blackie, which she was compelled to pen after a chance meeting with New York State's most notorious criminal John E. Murphy, alias Canada Blackie. Serving a life sentence for a robbery gone awry, he was later given an additional 10 years for attempting a prison break, and vowed to defy all prison authority - until he met Thomas Mott Osborne at Auburn Prison and saw Osborne's ""new penology"" in action. Thereafter he championed reform within New York's prison system with the same vim and vigor he had used to combat it, becoming a model prisoner and powerful influence for good in his last days."

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9781963228298

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"""Here is a prison reform book that has a power out of all proportion to its modest size and pretensions. The Story of Canada Blackie is a heart-stirring proof that more enlightened penal methods than those in vogue in the past can change a powerful destructive agent into a loyal worker for the good of society."" -The New York Times Book Review ""Canada Blackie, the Uncle Tom of a prison servitude which in economic fallacy, savagery, and general inhumanity makes the slavery of a past generation almost a jest. Should this sound to the reader like literary hyperbole, he is advised to read this book."" -The Evening Post ""The most notorious criminal in New York State . . . a man of extraordinary ability, ingenuity, and courage, feared by all his keepers on account of his skill."" -The Outlook ""In the days when men were mostly bad or good, Blackie was known as one of the worst."" -The Literary Digest ""One of the most resourceful and daring criminals ever convicted in New York State was Canada Blackie, who became a power for good among prisoners before his death."" -Detective Story Magazine ""Every worthy cause needs a martyr. Canada Blackie, bandit and bank robber, played that role. He was a sample of the finished product of the old prison system."" -Rudolph W. Chamberlain, There is No Truce: A Life of Thomas Mott Osborne ""His letters show flashes of mental power which, turned upon the problem of his own career, might, with the healing influence of freedom, have given the world a story as big as his tragedy . . . a tragedy of a wrong social system, not merely a vicious prison system."" -Benjamin J. Legere, The New Republic ""The Story of Canada Blackie, by Anne P. Field, is written for the open-doorly-minded. It tells about one of the jailbirds who threw himself into the work headed by Mr. Osborne and Donald Lowrie. And while it is sentimentally told, it is manifestly and significantly true."" -J.B. Kerfoot, Life"

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